Design/visual effects/animation house Click 3x, New York, has teamed with editor Billy Senia to launch Habitat, a creative editorial boutique serving advertising and broadcast clientele. The new venture features three editors and three Avid-based edit suites located on the Click 3x premises.
Click 3x executive producer Jason Mayo will assume the same role for Habitat, which has a roster of editors that includes: Senia whose most recent staff position was at Slingshot, New York; Rob Campbell who comes over from Click 3x; and Aimee Lyde, who’s been freelancing the past seven years.
Habitat and Click 3x will function as independent entities, noted Senia, but will co-venture on individual projects when appropriate on a nonexclusive basis. “My clients have been encouraging me to start my own company,” said Senia, “and this is the ideal opportunity…There are many advantages in being located in the same facility as a graphics house. If I need 3-D or a type treatment for a project, it’s immediately available.”
Senia is no stranger to Click 3x. He has been doing freelance work out of that company for three months, collaborating with it on several projects, including a four-spot campaign for Meijer Stores via New York agency DeVito/Verdi.
Conversely, Click 3x gains via Habitat. “Editorial has always been important to our process and a service that we package when it benefits our clients,” said Mayo. “We have long felt it would be advantageous to have easy access to more editorial talent.”
Senia has worked as a spot editor for 15 years, with recent credits for such clients as Club Med, Abreva and Carraba’s Italian Grill. Meanwhile, Campbell was with Click 3x since 2003. He has cut commercials for MTV, Canon and Miller Lite. And Lyde’s endeavors include working with Click 3x on spots for Road Runner and broadcast graphics for The History Channel and Showtime.
In addition to commercials, Lyde has been active in longer form disciplines. She edited 100 Years of Ford, a retrospective produced by bicoastal Imaginary Forces for J. Walter Thompson, Detroit, as well as such documentaries as Neal Casal: Anytime Tomorrow, which premiered at the ’01 New Yorker Film Festival, and The Great Game: The Story of Wall Street for CNBC.